WWII Veteran from Pocatello, Idaho

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story origin / war

Summary

Story

I was twenty-two when World War II started, and twenty-six when it ended. I was going down Main Street in Pocatello, Idaho when the announcement about Pearl Harbor being bombed came over the radio. I was with a girl friend, and I don’t remember that we paid too much attention to it at the time.

I joined the Navy in 1944 when I was twenty-four years old. I had two brothers who served in the Army.

I was sent first to Guadalcanal, an island in the Pacific. I went from there to Honolulu, and was there for the rest of the war.

I was gone from home too long. I was in the Navy for twenty-seven months. I got home twice on leave to see my wife and a daughter.

My brother, Raymond, told me about one experience he had. He was guarding some German prisoners, and had them chopping wood when he saw one of them with an ax above his head, and he thought he was aiming it at his head, and he shot him.

Life changed a lot during the war. People had to go without a lot of things because of the rationing of some things such as meat, gas, sugar, and other things. People were given ration stamps, and you had to have stamps before you could buy certain things.

It would be valuable to talk to people who were in the war, or who worked in defense plants, or read about the war in different books.